Bleached Ghosts
by ShammyLeigh
Summary: Something strange is happening in Karakura town, could it be ghosts? Is the paranormal really to blame? Mizuiro Kojima is taking the initiative to find out. Seeking help, Mizuiro stumbles into the care of Shibuya Psychic Research.
1. Chapter 1

Mai had been spacing out, watching Lin type away on his laptop as he always did, when Naru stormed out of his office.

"Are you stupid?" Lin didn't even try to hide his sigh from his boss' lack of basic human respect.

Mai snapped out of her boredom induced daydreaming and glared at Naru. "What was that?"

He said nothing and gestured to the now room temperature cup of tea sitting on the coffee table in front of Mai. "Oh… right." Mai blushed slightly then worked her way to the kitchen with the forgotten cup of tea in hand.

She stalked past Naru while both trying to ignore his entire rude self and keep her inevitable blushing hidden.

Naru ignored her ignoring him and trailed after her into the kitchen. "If you keep spacing out like that then I'm going to have to dock your pay." He stopped and stood a few feet behind Mai while she worked on making a new cup of tea.

Mai watched the water begin to boil, but said nothing. She had read somewhere that if a girl completely ignored the guy she liked then he would become a nervous wreck and would want her more. Mai's famous blush returned at the thought of Naru actually wanting her in any sense other than to make tea.

"Mai?" She didn't even flinch at the sound of her name, mostly because she was too far gone into her fantasies and couldn't hear anything outside of her own head.

She was barely out of her reverie when she was forcibly turned away from the stove and had Naru's cold palm solidly placed in the middle of her forehead with his free hand gripping her upper arm. Her eyes widened in shock. The shock originated from both the fact that she had forgotten that he was there and that he was touching her like he was actually concerned.

To her own amazement, Mai was able to squeak out: "W-What are you doing?!" She wanted nothing more than for him to let go and turn around; there was no way in hell she was going to be able to hide the bright red blush spreading across her entire face.

"I'm checking your temperature, idiot. There's no way you could keep quiet like that, especially after I've criticized you, unless you were seriously ill." His features were hard and unrevealing like they normally were, but Mai still couldn't stop herself from thinking that his eyes told a different story. They looked tired, but also… worried?

"Hell no." Mai's permanent blush only intensified when she realized that she had spoken out loud.

Naru let go of her after he was satisfied with his gauging of her health. He pushed her to the side and was tending to the brutally ignored tea when he heard her speak and said, "What? Did you say something? You need to speak up."

Mai fidgeted nervously and replied, "What? No… Gosh, Naru, you must be hearing things! You should get that checked…" Laughing nervously she retreated ever so quickly back into the room where Lin was.

Naru's eyes widened slightly as he watched her prance out of the kitchen. How could one little assistant be so infuriatingly…

He sighed and steadily turned back to the stove to finish preparing his favorite beverage. He lingered in the kitchen for a few minutes, sipping at his tea until he heard a knock at the front door. His initial thought was that Monk, Yasuhara or one of the others had simply shown up as they did on a regular basis. He soon realized, however, that nearly none of them would have knocked. Actually, John or maybe Masako would have been the only candidates for knocking, but as Naru investigated the next room from the kitchen doorway he discovered that the visitor was a young man, no older than seventeen at the most.

He watched as Mai closed the door behind him and introduced herself. "Do you have an appointment?"

"Oh, no… I just decided to come by a little suddenly. Is that okay?" He glanced at Lin and Naru nervously as he spoke.

Mai cheerfully answered, "Oh of course, please sit down and I'll go get my boss for you."

She turned to see Naru already standing there watching them and gestured for him to join them.

Naru then moved away from his spot in the doorway and into the main room. He sat down on the couch and the visitor copied by sitting in the chair opposite of Naru on the other side of the coffee table.

"Your name."

The stranger was taken aback by Naru's unfriendly bluntness, but quickly recovered. "Mizuiro Kojima, and yourself?"

Naru had a look on his face like he was amazed that Mizuiro hadn't known his name. Mai, picking up on said look, rolled her eyes but remained quiet as she sat in the chair next to Mizuiro's.

"Shibuya Kazuya. This is my assistant, Mai."

"It's nice to meet you." He reached out his hand to Mai for her to shake and when she grabbed on, he pulled her towards him and whispered, "what about that sketchy guy in the corner?"

He clearly was only trying to bring her closer to ask about Lin without making him uncomfortable, but Mai noticed that right after Mizuiro pulled her in, Naru jerked forward like a jungle cat ready to pounce on the first piece of meat it'd seen in days.

Mai blushed. Again. Not as badly as before, but still enough for her to laugh nervously and fidget while she answered as quietly as was possible for her at this point. "Oh, him? That's just Lin… He's not sketchy at all! He's very nice."

She laughed nervously again and Naru's face became harder and blatantly unsatisfied. He leaned back into the couch and finished the last bit of his tea.

"Mai, tea." He placed the empty cup on the table and crossed his arms.

She stood up, avoided Naru's glares and asked, "Would you like some tea, Mizuiro?"

He glanced at Naru, shuddered at his demon glare, then slowly turned back to Mai and said, "Um… no, thank you." Mizuiro was beginning to really regret coming here at all, but he needed help and this was the only place he could find that offered the kind of help he needed.

Naru turned his menacing glare on Mizuiro as Mai left the room. "What are the details of the haunting?"

Mizuiro looked surprised by the question. "Haunting…? Well, I guess it could be seen that way…" He looked down into his lap and twiddled his thumbs.

"What do you mean by 'it could be seen that way'?" Naru's face began to mold back into its stoic unreadable self as his curiosity of the case slowly grew.

"Well it's not so much moans and knocks as it is something else." Naru waited for him to continue and when he did, he lifted his head to look Naru in the face. "There's something… weird happening to all of my friends." He paused and appeared to be trying to piece together his thoughts.

Just then Mai came back with the tea and placed Naru's cup in front of him on the table and sat back down.

Mizuiro continued, "It's like a virus that infected all of them, one by one. It was almost unnoticeable at first, just one or two of them running off in the middle of a school day, nothing too outrageous. Soon after that though, more of them started ditching and acting strangely. None of them will give me a straight answer as to why they leave, if they even bother to answer me at all." He paused clearly upsetting himself by saying this.

Naru's face was completely normal at this point and he sounded totally indifferent when he said, "I don't see how this has anything to do with something paranormal. It sounds like a bunch of rebellious teenagers who are involving themselves in something more important to them than school. We can't help you."

Mizuiro's face paled as he prepared for what he needed to say next. "It doesn't stop there. One of the few friends I have left who hasn't been affected has noticed some things around the others; I have too."

Mai sat in her chair, listening intently. She knew there was something more to it even before he said anything about it. He looked too responsible and smart to be bothered by something as trivial as distant friends. Mai also noticed that he, other than being a bit short, was quite cute and well put together. If she didn't have such an overbearing obsession with the tall, dark and mysterious type, she thought that she might have had a little crush on Mizuiro.

As if Naru could hear her thoughts, he sent a chilling glare in her direction. A shiver ran through her at the thought of Naru being able to hear her thoughts. Oblivious to this, Mizuiro continued with his story.

The first thing I remember is my friend, Tatsuki, telling me about a time when she saw our friends Ichigo and Rukia run out of the school building and into the school's courtyard. She watched them and what she saw… it just sounded so strange to me at the time."

"What did she see?" Mai had been engrossed in his story out of pure curiosity and almost noticeably leaned in even closer.

"She said this is what happened exactly: Rukia put on a strange looking glove and punched Ichigo with her palm square in the middle of his chest which knocked him out. After that, Tatsuki said that it looked like Rukia was yelling at nothing, just air, and then soon ran off alone, leaving Ichigo lying there."

Mai tried the best she could to wrap her mind around that situation, but it just didn't make any sense.

Naru was becoming clearly annoyed. Mostly because Mai was staring at Mizuiro like he was coated in glitter and she just couldn't stop staring at the sparkly thing in front of her.

He was damn near about to say this to her when Mizuiro decided to continue on with his story.

"That was just the first thing I remember. I didn't think much of it at the time; just shook it off and forgot about it. There have been tons of other things since then though that have made me remember it. Look, I already know you guys deal pretty strictly with ghosts, I heard all about it, but there's definitely something paranormal going on here. Something other than normal. It's not just teenagers going through fazes, it's deeper, but I can't figure it out." Mizuiro finally had the chance to return the hard glare at Naru and 'stood his ground' as he braced for Naru's rebuttal. Since the intimidating boss-man had been practically silent the entire time, there really was no way for him to know how Naru was going to react.

Naru returned the glare while he ran through all of this new information in his head. It certainly was a strange case, which made it interesting. Naru would never admit it though, especially not to this kid.

Mai looked at him and said something, probably his name, but he was too wrapped up in his thoughts to respond. After only a few more seconds of internal conflict, Naru stated, "We will take your case. We will need you to gather students who are willing to share stories of what they've seen or heard and I would like it if your friends, the ones who seem different, to not know why we are there."

Mizuiro's eyes widened in surprise, he'd really thought that he would be shot down and brushed off. "Sure! Um… when do you think you'll be able to come? The school is in Karakura Town, so I know it is a bit more than a stone's throw away…"

"The distance isn't a problem. We will be able to arrive there by this time next week. Also, be sure that your school administrators are aware that members of my team will be doing walkthroughs during the school day. Can you do that?" Naru's tone was belittling, but still professional enough to avoid an argument with Mai over his rudeness.

"Don't worry; I can take care of everything. Just, please, do what you can to help my friends."

Mai jumped in, "Hang in there, Mizuiro. SPR has a 100% success rate so I can guarantee that we won't let you down." She gave him a warm smile as they walked towards the door together.

He returned the smile, it was sad, but it showed that he at least some faith that they could help him. "Thanks Mai, Kazuya, and you too Lin." He looked over Mai's shoulder to look at Lin who kept typing but nodded to show that he had heard him.

Mizuiro gave one last grateful smile to both Mai and Naru before turning and leaving, Mai closing the door behind him.

Mai turned back around to see Naru heading towards his office and followed him. "Do you really think a spirit has something to do with this?" She wasn't expecting a very detailed answer from him.

She followed him into the office and stood just inside the doorway and waited for an answer.

He sat down in his chair and opened one of his many files and appeared to be reading it while saying, "There's no way to know for sure at this point, obviously. I would have hoped that you could at least figure out that much."

Mai stifled her urge to call him a jerk and stomp out of the office, slamming the door behind her. Instead, her eye twitched and she, in the calmest way possible, said, "You're right, Naru. I'll try to think a little more carefully next time." She grinned like she had just won a trophy, turned on her heel and left the room.

Naru, who had fully expected her to yell at him and call him a jerk, lifted his line of sight and stared at the empty doorway for a few seconds. He felt the slightest hint of concern for Mai's general health (again), but quickly brushed it off. Sighing, he tilted his head back down towards his file to continue his reading. Without realizing it, he said quietly, but out loud, "what a bothersome assistant."

Immediately after finishing that remark, Mai popped her head in his doorway. "I almost forgot, do you want any more tea?"

Naru's head shot back up. He was clearly surprised, but nowhere near enough to lose his virtually unbreakable composure. He stared at her for a very brief moment to process what she had just said then answered, "Yes."

"Alrighty then! Oh, and by the way, Naru, you should really make sure no one's within earshot before you start talking to yourself."

Mai abruptly pulled her head from the doorway and strode towards the kitchen. Her face read like she was very proud of herself at that moment. Mai thought of her little comment as payback for all the times he had caught her talking to herself and embarrassed her by making a rude comment about it.

Naru blinked a few times as he stared after her. 'What? Did I say something out loud?' He had to think about it for a minute or two, but he did remember mumbling something. However, he had more important things to do like preparing for this next case. He simply couldn't be bothered with something so trivial. Still, Naru couldn't stop his mind from wandering back to Mai's comment. Then that led to thinking about how she had been acting all day. At first he had thought that Mai was just being proud by not speaking, then he thought she was sick. A thought crossed his mind, 'what if she's maturing and learning to control her anger towards him?' Naru had to summon everything within him not to chuckle at that thought.

Realizing that he had spent far too much of his time thinking insignificant thoughts about his assistant, Naru forced his brain to be engrossed in the file. About halfway down a page in the file, Naru heard the familiar clatter of a broken teacup in the kitchen.

Sighing, he got up and continued into the kitchen to assist his clumsy assistant.


	2. Chapter 2

That morning, Mizuiro sat on a courtyard bench in front of Karakura High School. It was early and few students had arrived. He thought it best for him to be there early to insure he would be there before SPR, he wanted to be sure they found their way in the school. It had been an infuriating hassle to convince his administration that this was necessary. He made himself out to be a fool to them but eventually was able to coax them into agreement after insisting that the safety of the students could be at risk. Though they agreed, the whole idea of Shibuya Psychic Research coming to Karakura High was skating on thin ice with them. Mizuiro knew this and it pushed him to be there that morning so he could coordinate SPR and keep the operation running.

He planned on corralling the group and their equipment into the building swiftly and quietly and even had an empty classroom set aside as their "home base." Since it was so early, he assumed that getting them through the building would be easy enough.

Mizuiro had been staring down at the ground running through his thoughts when he noticed someone in his peripheral vision. Looking up, Mizuiro saw Uryu Ishida walking on the sidewalk towards the school.

He wasn't surprised. Even though Uryu was one of the people that was involved with… whatever it was that was going on, Uryu was still an enthusiastic student. It wasn't strange to see him there so early. What was worrying Mizuiro was the fact they the lot of them kept leaving midday to go God knows where and do God knows what. So in a way, it was a relief to see one of them show up so early, at least Mizuiro knew that one of them was still putting forth the effort. After a swift swing of the door, Uryu Ishida disappeared into the building.

Mizuiro returned to his thought and about ten minutes after Uryu's arrival, he saw a black van driving towards the school. The van came to a smooth stop directly in front of Karakura High and he watched as three somewhat familiar figures filed out of it.

Karakura Town was about an hour and a half away from the SPR office. That meant that Mai was going to have to sit between Naru and Lin, two of the most antisocial people she knew, for that entire hour and a half.

She liked being close to Naru, and didn't mind Lin either, but these car rides made her want to stab herself in the kidney.

Mai leaned back into the seat and shifted her head to look at Naru. He was reading one of his files again. 'There's no way those files are _that_ interesting.'

She crossed her arms and sighed. Since she had nothing better to do, Mai decided that she would deliberately stare at Lin while he drove to see if she could get some kind of reaction. It quickly became blatantly obvious that Lin was either ignoring her or he was too focused on driving to notice her staring at him at all. Mai narrowed her eyes and mustered up all of her brainpower to send Lin "look over here" messages with her mind.

Unfortunately, since the car rides were so boring for her, these kinds of things happened more often than not. Mai would come up with stupid games to distract her mind while the time passed. When Mai really thought that Lin was about to look over, she felt Naru shift next to her.

"You do know that people would find you strange for staring at them like that. You're lucky that Lin knows that you're just an idiot."

Mai whipped her head around. "I'm not an idiot! I just have nothing better to do during these car rides because neither of you ever talk about ANYTHING."

"I'm quite sure that we're talking now." Naru continued to read his file while Mai fumed.

Instead of immediately responding to his smartass comment, she tightly closed her eyes and rubbed the frustration out of her temples. "I'm going to sleep." Mai twisted herself so that her back was fully facing Naru and rested her head on Lin's arm. She didn't ask, but it didn't seem to bother him so she kept her head where it was for the next thirty minutes.

Luckily for Mai, she was able to spend that entire thirty minutes sleeping peacefully without a single sign of a dream of _any_ kind.

Her dreamless sleep was interrupted when they drove over what felt like a pothole and the jolt of it was enough to wake her.

When Lin noticed that Mai had been disturbed from her sleep, he said simply, "There's a great deal of damage on this road." He kept his eyes on the road and Mai slowly sat herself upright.

Mai rubbed her eyes and looked out the front window. What she saw confirmed what Lin had said, there were potholes and long, very noticeable cracks all over the place.

"We'll be there in about fifteen minutes anyways so it doesn't matter." Mai looked over at Naru. She noticed the file in his hand and thought, 'Really? He's still reading it?'

"Naru—" She was about to ask him what was so interesting about those files when she felt a horrible pressure that her entire structure curl in on itself. She tried to raise her arms to brace herself on the dash but soon realized that the pressure wouldn't let her move at all.

Her eyes widened in shock and pain and she tried to say something, anything at all, but all she was able to choke out were pieces of words and none of it made any sense.

Naru and Lin were both saying something to her, she knew that, but she couldn't hear them, their voices were muffled and were being muted by a loud, screeching noise that rang like a siren in her ears.

Mai stared straight ahead at the road with tears filling her eyes. Her mind reeled, 'Please stop… I can't take this!' She was panicking now and felt the beginnings of a black out when she saw a black mass blur across her vision. Through the pain, she noticed two things and only these two things, everything else was mixed into a static mess. One, that towards the top of this obscure black mass was a strangely placed orange blur moving with the black. And two, the mass was outside of the car. It wasn't just her eyes failing her, it was there, and it was directly in front of the van.

Suddenly, the pressure began to lift. She drifted slowly back into the seat and sighed a breath of relief at the disappearance of the eerie pressure. To her surprise, she had made it through the experience without blacking out.

Mai cautiously raised her arm and when she knew she could do it, she put her hands to her face to wipe the tears away. "What was…" Mai leaned forward and cradled her now aching head in her hands while her elbows rested on her knees.

The colors, lights and noises around her slowly morphed back into their proper place. With her hearing returning to normal, Mai could hear Naru telling Lin to pull over. She raised her head a little too quickly and winced from the pain but was able to say, "No, don't pull over, I'm fine… I just felt something, it's fine, keep driving."

Lin slowed down and glanced at Naru, waiting for his boss to decide what was best to do.

Naru hesitated and looked at Mai sitting there with her head in her hands. He sighed then gestured to Lin to keep driving. He realized that they would be there very soon, pulling over would be pointless.

Naru shifted his vision to glare out of his window. He rested his right elbow on the side of the car door with his chin in his palm. His mind was instinctively working through what he knew of the case so far and he wondered if what had just happened to Mai had anything to do with it. Without even realizing what he was doing, Naru set his left hand on Mai's back as if he was trying to comfort her.

He hadn't processed where his hand was until he suddenly heard Mai muffle out the words, "I'm fine, Naru. It's just a headache."

Naru swiveled his head and glared at his self-acting hand. He didn't say anything, just removed his hand and continued to stare out the window.

Lin stifled a smirk at his boss' abrupt sign of affection and continued driving down the oddly broken down road that led to Karakura High School.


End file.
